"der Lack ist ab" meaning in German

See der Lack ist ab in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Phrase

Etymology: Literally, “the varnish has come off”. Etymology templates: {{yesno||l|L}} L, {{m-g|the varnish has come off}} “the varnish has come off”, {{lit|the varnish has come off}} Literally, “the varnish has come off” Head templates: {{head|de|phrase}} der Lack ist ab
  1. the charm is gone, it's not what it used to be; the cracks are showing; used to express that the initial quality or attractiveness of something has decreased significantly Related terms: die Luft ist raus
    Sense id: en-der_Lack_ist_ab-de-phrase-Ilf6cKXB Categories (other): German entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries
{
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    {
      "args": {
        "1": "the varnish has come off"
      },
      "expansion": "“the varnish has come off”",
      "name": "m-g"
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    {
      "args": {
        "1": "the varnish has come off"
      },
      "expansion": "Literally, “the varnish has come off”",
      "name": "lit"
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  ],
  "etymology_text": "Literally, “the varnish has come off”.",
  "head_templates": [
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      "expansion": "der Lack ist ab",
      "name": "head"
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  "lang": "German",
  "lang_code": "de",
  "pos": "phrase",
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    {
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          "name": "German entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
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      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              219,
              234
            ]
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          "bold_translation_offsets": [
            [
              240,
              274
            ]
          ],
          "english": "For that purpose the oil companies were told very clearly during the talks: \"If the look to Bonn, to the tariff policies, is the height of entrepreneurial imagination, then the managers should be shown the door as soon as possible, because they aren't up to the task anymore.\"",
          "ref": "1955 August 11, “Dem Öl geht noch nicht das Talglicht auf”, in Die Zeit, number 32/1955:",
          "text": "Dazu wurde den Ölfirmen in den Gesprächen sehr offen gesagt: \"Wenn der Blick nach Bonn, auf die Zollpolitik, der ganze unternehmerische Ideenreichtum ist, dann sollten schleunigst die Manager ausgewechselt werden, denn der Lack ist ab.\"",
          "translation": "For that purpose the oil companies were told very clearly during the talks: \"If the look to Bonn, to the tariff policies, is the height of entrepreneurial imagination, then the managers should be shown the door as soon as possible, because they aren't up to the task anymore.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
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          "english": "It's not that great either. It could just as well run on early evening TV with \"Gilmore Girls\". It'd fit in better there. The charm's gone, you could tell in season 2.",
          "ref": "2006 August 17, Maikel \"Tank, the Hatchet\" Lehr, “Buffy Mittwochs im Doppelpack”, in de.rec.tv.buffy (Usenet):",
          "text": "So toll ist das auch nicht. Das könnte auch [mit] \"Gilmore Girls\" zusammen im Vorabendprogramm laufen. Da wäre das besser aufgehoben. Das der Lack ab ist sah man ja bei S2.",
          "translation": "It's not that great either. It could just as well run on early evening TV with \"Gilmore Girls\". It'd fit in better there. The charm's gone, you could tell in season 2.",
          "type": "quotation"
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            [
              263,
              267
            ]
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          "english": "Originally, Stuttgart 21 was supposed to be the Railway's big project of the 21st century. Supposedly it was about a big, European rail axis. At some point, even the future of Germany in terms of location attractiveness depended on it. But all that glitz is long gone.",
          "ref": "2014 April 11, Sabine Leidig (LINKE), parliamentary debates (Deutscher Bundestag), Berlin, page 2596, column C:",
          "text": "Ursprünglich sollte Stuttgart 21 der große Wurf der Bahn des 21. Jahrhunderts werden. Angeblich ging es um eine große europäische Magistrale. Irgendwann hing sogar die Zukunft des Wirtschaftsstandortes Deutschland daran. Aber der Lack ist längst ab.",
          "translation": "Originally, Stuttgart 21 was supposed to be the Railway's big project of the 21st century. Supposedly it was about a big, European rail axis. At some point, even the future of Germany in terms of location attractiveness depended on it. But all that glitz is long gone.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "the charm is gone, it's not what it used to be; the cracks are showing; used to express that the initial quality or attractiveness of something has decreased significantly"
      ],
      "id": "en-der_Lack_ist_ab-de-phrase-Ilf6cKXB",
      "links": [
        [
          "charm",
          "charm"
        ],
        [
          "gone",
          "gone"
        ],
        [
          "used to",
          "used to"
        ],
        [
          "cracks",
          "cracks"
        ],
        [
          "show",
          "show"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "die Luft ist raus"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "der Lack ist ab"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
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    {
      "args": {
        "1": "the varnish has come off"
      },
      "expansion": "“the varnish has come off”",
      "name": "m-g"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "the varnish has come off"
      },
      "expansion": "Literally, “the varnish has come off”",
      "name": "lit"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Literally, “the varnish has come off”.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
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      "expansion": "der Lack ist ab",
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  "lang_code": "de",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "die Luft ist raus"
    }
  ],
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          "english": "For that purpose the oil companies were told very clearly during the talks: \"If the look to Bonn, to the tariff policies, is the height of entrepreneurial imagination, then the managers should be shown the door as soon as possible, because they aren't up to the task anymore.\"",
          "ref": "1955 August 11, “Dem Öl geht noch nicht das Talglicht auf”, in Die Zeit, number 32/1955:",
          "text": "Dazu wurde den Ölfirmen in den Gesprächen sehr offen gesagt: \"Wenn der Blick nach Bonn, auf die Zollpolitik, der ganze unternehmerische Ideenreichtum ist, dann sollten schleunigst die Manager ausgewechselt werden, denn der Lack ist ab.\"",
          "translation": "For that purpose the oil companies were told very clearly during the talks: \"If the look to Bonn, to the tariff policies, is the height of entrepreneurial imagination, then the managers should be shown the door as soon as possible, because they aren't up to the task anymore.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
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              122,
              139
            ]
          ],
          "english": "It's not that great either. It could just as well run on early evening TV with \"Gilmore Girls\". It'd fit in better there. The charm's gone, you could tell in season 2.",
          "ref": "2006 August 17, Maikel \"Tank, the Hatchet\" Lehr, “Buffy Mittwochs im Doppelpack”, in de.rec.tv.buffy (Usenet):",
          "text": "So toll ist das auch nicht. Das könnte auch [mit] \"Gilmore Girls\" zusammen im Vorabendprogramm laufen. Da wäre das besser aufgehoben. Das der Lack ab ist sah man ja bei S2.",
          "translation": "It's not that great either. It could just as well run on early evening TV with \"Gilmore Girls\". It'd fit in better there. The charm's gone, you could tell in season 2.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
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            [
              240,
              257
            ],
            [
              263,
              267
            ]
          ],
          "english": "Originally, Stuttgart 21 was supposed to be the Railway's big project of the 21st century. Supposedly it was about a big, European rail axis. At some point, even the future of Germany in terms of location attractiveness depended on it. But all that glitz is long gone.",
          "ref": "2014 April 11, Sabine Leidig (LINKE), parliamentary debates (Deutscher Bundestag), Berlin, page 2596, column C:",
          "text": "Ursprünglich sollte Stuttgart 21 der große Wurf der Bahn des 21. Jahrhunderts werden. Angeblich ging es um eine große europäische Magistrale. Irgendwann hing sogar die Zukunft des Wirtschaftsstandortes Deutschland daran. Aber der Lack ist längst ab.",
          "translation": "Originally, Stuttgart 21 was supposed to be the Railway's big project of the 21st century. Supposedly it was about a big, European rail axis. At some point, even the future of Germany in terms of location attractiveness depended on it. But all that glitz is long gone.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "the charm is gone, it's not what it used to be; the cracks are showing; used to express that the initial quality or attractiveness of something has decreased significantly"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "charm",
          "charm"
        ],
        [
          "gone",
          "gone"
        ],
        [
          "used to",
          "used to"
        ],
        [
          "cracks",
          "cracks"
        ],
        [
          "show",
          "show"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "der Lack ist ab"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable German dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-08-20 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-08-05 using wiktextract (872fc7b and 4deed51). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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